


It takes a woman

by Deense



Category: Black Sails
Genre: F/M, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-18
Updated: 2016-12-18
Packaged: 2018-09-09 12:54:45
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,443
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8891572
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Deense/pseuds/Deense
Summary: Miranda notices something that Thomas doesn't





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [mapped](https://archiveofourown.org/users/mapped/gifts).



Miranda had been the one to notice first. To her it was obvious the way James looked at Thomas, when he thought no one watched him. His eyes would flick tentatively about the room to ensure all were occupied in conversation. Then they would come to rest on the other man, serious and unsure all at once. The time it took him to look always varied. Sometimes he would turn away as if gazing at Thomas burned him, and yet others James would let his sight rest on him until Miranda was sure her husband felt the weight of that look. But Thomas never did, too enraptured in his conversations, expounding on his ideas for the world with his his friends. 

She’d told Thomas of what she’d noticed one evening whilst they were in bed. The haze of the claret and cognac warmed his veins and muddled his mind as much as her touch did, her words startling him even still. He’d roused himself from that place, pulled his thoughts clear of the fogginess that enveloped his mind. 

His hand caught hers as it trailed down his bare stomach, as he needed a moment to gather his thoughts. It was no surprise to Thomas that Miranda had seen something in James he hadn’t. He wasn’t as observant as she was, especially when it came to people. He’d often say something improper or foolish, act rashly and impulsively. Yet she loved him for all of it, and he loved her. 

She’d a way of it, a way of seeing to the heart of the matter; the heart of people. Miranda was better at navigating society, of understanding what it was that the people around them truly wanted. After all, hadn’t it been Miranda who had realised the desire he’d held for men, the thing he’d tried to ignore and subvert all of those years? She’d been the one who’d convinced him there was no shame in it, no more than there was shame in the way they touched, the way they loved one another.

“Does he really?” Thomas finally asked when he found his voice, turning to look at her with curious eyes. James fascinated him; a man closed off to most, so proper and yet still with a kindness that most of his sort did not hold. 

“He does,” she responded as she pulled her hand out from his and reached to cup his cheek. Her words were light and teasing, as light as her lips as they brushed over his. “You do the same, you realise. Watch him.”

To another woman he might have insisted otherwise. Would have insisted that it was their working relationship, that it was a professional curiosity and no more. He’d no pretenses with his wife, no need for them. Not, he knew, that she wouldn’t have immediately seen through them to the truth beneath. And, truth be told, there was no other woman for Thomas, nor would there ever be. 

“What is he like?” He pulled Miranda close, soft hands skimming up her softer back. She’d been with James, taken him as a lover these past few months, he knew that. Thomas had never before asked about the men she chose, but he had never found himself so keenly interested in one. “When you are alone?”

She laughed softly at his question, almost as if she had expected it. Miranda pushed him onto his back, slid her leg over him and straddled his waist. Thomas gazed up at her with still-curious eyes, his lips parted as he took each breath. He wanted to know what she would tell him, and also wanted what was to come. There was a longing within in him for them both, and he was sure Miranda knew that. 

“What is it you’d like to know.” She leaned over him, slipped her hands into his and pressed them back over his head. It was her way to take control with him; he needed that, he wanted that. Miranda came close, her lips brushing his cheek. “Would you like to know what he’s like when we’re together? How he touches me? Or how he talks to me?”

She’d barely said anything but already his breath was faster. Thomas didn’t know what to ask for, what he wanted to hear more. He pressed up into her and she shook her head, hooking her feet over his knees to hold him in place. “Which do you want me to tell you?”

“All of it,” he breathed, as desperate for her words as he was for her body; as he was for James. 

“He has a softness,” she said quietly. Miranda kissed his neck as she spoke, dragged her lips along jaw, nipped at his ear. “A sadness. We chase it away for a time, but it always comes back.”

She’d known what he needed to hear first, that he’d wanted to hear what it was James was like in those private moments. He started to try to imagine it, imagine being close to the other man. To have a quiet word and see him relax. 

“He smiles, and it’s unguarded. Not always, but there are moments when I think he nearly forgets himself and what he’s supposed to be.” 

“Supposed to be,” Thomas whispered, his eyes shut. He knew what it was like to have the weight of expectation upon him and to want things that he’d always been told he shouldn’t. Miranda had been the one to coax that shame from him and make him believe the things that he wanted weren’t wrong. 

“You’ve all things you think you’re supposed to be,” she murmured, pulling back to look down at Thomas. His eyes opened and he saw her looking down, her umber hair falling around them both. 

He tried to drink it all in; the feel of her body against his juxtaposed with her words about James. Thomas looked to her with encouraging eyes, he didn’t want her to stop. Not what she was telling him, nor with her body. Miranda knew that, could feel him pressing against her. 

“In different ways, you’ve both this need to be strong.” Miranda held his eyes as she slid down on him, her movement slow and sure. He gasped and resisted the urge to pull his hands from hers, to press his hips up and press into her. She controlled her movements, controlled him with each shift and lowering of her hips, and each press of his hands back into the bed. 

“Is this strong?” 

“Yes. Giving up strength gives you strength.”

Always the same question, and always the same answer. Each time he believed the answer more. Tonight Thomas was nearly convinced, clasping her hands tight even as they gripped his. “Does he- Do you… Like this?” 

“Yes.” She answered the unfinished questions, knowing precisely what he had meant to ask. “You both do.”

“I do,” he admitted, giving in to what it was they both wanted. 

“We do,” Miranda said, her voice strained and her body tense and taut. She moved faster, his hips started to rock with hers as he felt her tighten around him. 

He came after she did, the release intense and welcome. For a moment his mind stilled and there were no worries or concerns. It was liberating to be without the weight of life upon him, only the weight of her body against his. His shoulders ached from being pressed above his head, a pleasant ache.

“Do you think… Should I speak to him?” 

“You already speak to him,” she said, her head resting on his shoulder and her body still half-covering his. There was a sated amusement to her words that matched to look in her heavily lidded eyes. “You mean should you try to seduce him?”

“Perhaps,” he said nervously, as nervous as he’d been when they had first spoken of his attraction to men and acting upon it. He knew somehow, knew already that this man was different. Thomas knew that Miranda knew it too.

“I think that you should,” she said softly. She knew that this would change things between them. For all three of them. But it wasn’t something she could stop, nor would she want to. Love had taken them this far and would take them further, she was sure of that too. 

“I will then,” he said, decided on a course of action. Thomas tilted her chin upward, kissed her softly. “Stay in here tonight?”

“And scandalise the staff?” She teased. If their staff were to be scandalised it would have happened a very long time before. Miranda kissed him in return. “I will.”


End file.
